Since I got my last tattoo in 2004 I've
had almost no interest in getting any more. I've had a few ideas of ones
I've wanted to get, the earliest probably being from when I 1st worked with
Daniel Higgs, maybe as early as 1990 if not earlier because I can remember
discussing it with Danny.

Actually, there was one even earlier. It
may've been my 1ST tattoo idea. When William Donald Schaeffer was Mayor
of BalTimOre (1971-1986) he spent the tax-payer's money on promoting himself
widely through such devices as having bus benches painted that read: "Brought
to you by Mayor William Donald Schaeffer and the Citizens of Baltimore".
Since I thought this was a ridiculous waste of public money spent on self-promotion,
I thought it would be funny to get that sentence tattooed on my penis &
to then spread that image far & wide. Not suprisingly, I had no intention
of actually doing that.

Daniel told me that the idea I had in 1990
or thereabouts was "impossible", I said I thought it was
possible. In retrospect, Danny was right but I do think it could
be done with laser surgery. The idea was to get a different fingerprint
for each finger & thumb from 10 different people with 'criminal' records
- some for political activism that I agree with. That way, if my fingerprints
were at a scene where fingerprint dusting took place it would appear as
if some sort of 'criminal' supergroup had been there.

The above is a list of people whose fingerprints
I thought of using. Of course, I wasn't really serious about doing this,
I knew Daniel was right & I knew that getting copies of the fingerprints
would be extremely difficult (& incriminating). Nor was I serious about
using a fringerprint from "someone u want 2 "frame"': I would
never frame anyone. In retrospect that would be more fun to do with someone
like an Enron or Haliburton CEO.

The main idea that I still entertain from
time to time is the idea of a time bomb tattooed in a way so that it only
reads as a whole image when I'm in a fetal position. That way, when I'm
not in a fetal position the 'bomb' is exploded. Esseentially, this is both
an expression of emotional tension AND a formalist gag based on a tweak
of the "Exploded View".

I tried a few trial & error things
before I got to where I was satisfied. I started with the above "dynamite
clock radio" set at 6 O'Clock because "It's always 6 O'Clock"
at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party (& in neoism). I also used the clock radio
image because, despite the implications of a "human time bomb",
I didn't want the image to be violent, I wanted it to be mock-violent.

Not satisfied with the original clock face,
I decided to add my own face to the lock with a humorously intended look
of surprise.

Then I made this 8&1/2X11" transparency
so that it could be projected with an overhead projector. With today's home
equipment, this was easier than getting a slide made &, perhaps, harder
than just using a computer projection.

Initially, I just played around with having
the image projected on my chest so that my friend Julie Gonzalez could photograph
me for another project. A black & white version of this photo has beeen
displayed publicly for somewhat less than 6 years now. Some people find
it disturbing & too representative of my "dark side". I do
look pretty grim but it's meant to be self-parody as much as anything.

Next, I got into the fetal position &
asked a friend of mine, Sandra Budd, to project the transparency on me &
to photograph that.

That didn't quite work out as I imagined
it so I decided to just Photoshop the image instead.

Focusing more on the relevant details I
created a version where the limbs were outlined so that it would be obvious
to a tattooist which parts go where.

Making it even more obvious, I separated
each part of my body into components to make it easier for the tattooist
& so that I wouldn't have to hold the fetal position the whole time
while being tattooed. I still haven't gotten this done but looking at it
now I still think it's a great idea & I hope to do it someday.

Finally, I thought of getting Geronimo's
war paint on my face as a way of saying that I'm permanently in conflict
with society - which is dramatically overstating my case. I decided against
this idea both because it's an overstatement & because 'Geronimo' (apparently
his war cry rather than his actual name) went on the war path because his
mother, wife, & children were massacred by Mexican soldiers & he
was getting revenge. To compare myself to him would be disrespectful of
his memory.

In the photo of Geronimo above, his war
paint isn't really visible but I remember seeing a picture of him somewhere
where his war paint was white.